Community College: The Hidden Gem for Affordable and Quality Education for Parents | Episode 51

RESOURCES REFERENCED IN THE SHOW:
American Career College Costs
West Los Angeles College Medical Assisting Programs
Medical Assistant Salaries

In episode 51 of Falling for Learning Podcast, host TD Flenaugh explores the reasons why community colleges are a better choice for students than for-profit trade schools. As the graduation season ends, many students are uncertain about their next steps. This episode aims to provide valuable guidance for parents and caregivers in helping their children make informed decisions about their education.


TD Flenaugh emphasizes the importance of evaluating educational options carefully, especially considering the financial and long-term career impacts. Community colleges provide a cost-effective, high-quality education with robust support services and better job prospects, making them a superior choice over for-profit trade schools. Parents and caregivers are encouraged to do thorough research and consider community colleges as a viable option for their children's educational and career success.

Subscribe to the Falling for Learning Podcast, visit the website for more resources, and join the community of parents and educators striving to keep students on track for learning and success. The episode also highlights the availability of two books, The R.E.W.R.I.T.E. Method and The R.E.W.R.I.T.E. Method Workbook, to help children improve their writing skills.

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Statistics comparing community college versus for-profit colleges

Transcript

TD Flenaugh: 0:00

You can find mess wherever you go, wherever you go, you can find mess. So to say that a community college is not viable because of the environment or the kids who go there. It doesn't really make any sense. If I want to study and do my work and be about my business, I could do that as a community college, I could do that at a four year university. And I could do it at a for profit. But let me tell you why the community college is a better idea than that for profit trade school. Thank you for joining us for another episode of the Falling for Learning Podcast! Please hit the subscribe button! We're here for you. And you want to stick with this channel. If you have teens and tweens where you're a caregiver, right? Maybe a parent might be a caregiver, and you want to know what to do to keep them on track for learning and to stay on track for success, hit the subscribe button. I am really excited about our topic, because this is the end basically of graduation season. And for me it is I don't know where everybody else is on it. But I just really wanted to talk about how some of our children know exactly where they're going, they got their scholarships, they got their financial aid package, but then we have another group of students who aren't quite sure what they want to do. They are kind of done with school, they're kinda you know, we don't know, they we don't know. But we know exactly the right moves that they could make. That's how I was, when my daughter graduated, I was like, I know exactly what you could do, just listen to me. And you have to realize, you know, this is their lives, they're gonna do what they want to do. And they're gonna try to find something that they enjoy doing that works for them. And, you know, we wish them the best, we want to give them some guidance. And that is where I come in. One thing that our kids that are in the situation where they're not quite sure what they want to do, they haven't quite made a decision. They get sucked into these for profit colleges. So DeVry University, Trump University there's a whole list of them - American Career College. There's just so many, there's so many that kids get sucked into. They have these, these for profit colleges, pay their investors. They pay, you know, the owners. And a lot of times it is about profit, and not about the quality of education that they're providing. The number three reason why your child or young adult should attend a community college instead of a for profit trade school has to do with the support services that are available at community colleges. For example, you get the support staff, that they offer academic support and counseling. And it's not based on profit, meaning they're going to give them sound advice, that doesn't hinge on whether or not they get a commission or something like that, from enticing them into this new program or to change programs or whatever advice that they're seeking. They do make guarantees that are very hard for them to keep. And a lot of times they lose their accreditation. There's tutoring services available on college campuses that for profit colleges have less access to or provide less services in that way. Then academic advising again, is done to help them transfer. And it's notable that often for profit colleges don't really transfer into a four year university or even from a to another campus and other community college where you may not have that ability. And I know a lot of people had to start over every time they went to a new institution because they went to this for profit school that didn't fit that. The units that you get aren't transferable. It's a lot of problems. There's also lots of clubs and organizations that you can be a part of, in a community college, because they are like four year universities, wherein they have a Black Student Union. They have different clubs that you might join, that are going to help you to navigate in the professional world, network later on, and lots of student activities as well. So this is a special episode to really help us to dig into, do some cost analysis and all of that, to see if it really makes sense for your child to attend a community college or a for profit, trade school. So that's a distinction that we're making today, the community college or the for profit trade schools, the number two reason is better earning potential. Now, community colleges have strong ties to the local businesses. And they have, you know, relationships with those employers. In fact, a lot of them will have internships, or different organizations to work with them from the community while they're in community college. The relationships with local businesses and industries are intact at community colleges in a way that they often aren't in place at a for profit College. Of course, many for profit colleges have a negative stereotype because they have some unscrupulous practices that have caused children or young adults, adults in general to be involved in not a high quality education. So it doesn't look good business wise for them to continue to work with them. And so because of these strong partnerships in the community college, and you don't have a bad reputation like they have for for profit colleges, now, community colleges have a bad reputation in a different way than for profit schools do. So for community colleges, people often talk about the 13th year of school, they talk about that fifth year of high school, right. And this is what I have to say about that. There are kids who drop out of four year colleges, there are kids who drop out of community colleges, out of trade, schools, all of that they really have to have a level of maturity, if they're going to attend a for profit trade school, or for a four year school or a community college. They have to understand that this is for them. This is for them for their earning potential for their ability to create a living wage for themselves as they get older. So the same problems that you have, anywhere, right, if you find some knuckleheads to hang out knuckleheads to hang out with at a four year college, then you might end up dropping out. If you've decided you aren't going to wake up or you're going to go be out late at night and smoking, drinking whatever, and not making the choice to get up and go to school, then that's what you could deal with at a four year college, a for profit school, or a community college. Now, Community College is a little different, because you often are with the people who were in your sixth period in your fourth period, right? And if they're still messing around, and you could still be messing around, then you guys are just kind of ruining your lives together and not ruining your life. I don't want to be hyperbolic, but just making bad choices for yourself. And there's no one who's going to be like hurry up and get to class, you know, and you could lie to your parents. But again, you're an adult, like who you're doing this for yourself or you're not doing it for yourself and later on, you're going to have to reap the benefits or negative consequences of that. And and that's that's the bottom line. So a lot of people do very well at community colleges and transfer. My husband did it my brother in law did it and they pursued higher education and you know, very successful so, you know, kind of really readjust your thinking unless your family just has the money to spend. You know, community college is a great place even if people are kids are ready to go to a four year college but maybe your pockets aren't ready for it. To go to the four year college then then a community college for two years is a good idea still. So you know I Listen, I grew up in Alaska. And I'm laughing because it's like, you can find mess wherever you go, wherever you go, you can find mess. So to say that a community college is not viable because of the environment, or the kids who go there. It doesn't really make any sense. If I want to study and do my work and be about my business, I could do that as a community college, I could do that at a four year university. And I could do it at a for profit. But let me tell you why the community college is a better idea than that for profit trade school. And then let's get down to the business. The historical data just bears out that children or adults or students who are at community colleges have better earnings and have better jobs, stability than the for profit grads. The long term career growth and advancement opportunities. Again, we talked about how sometimes, a lot of times there is no transferring. Your work that you did at that community college than the one that you did at another school. If you want to advance you want to go to a higher education. So very important for you to understand and note, but historical data bears it out that it is better earning potential. All over the United States 75% of children don't know how to write well. Add that to the fact that so many people out there are trying to silence the voices of those who have been oppressed, and trying to prevent them from telling their story. Who's going to tell your story. If your child doesn't know how to write, well, I have two books to address this issue. The rewrite method and the rewrite method workbook returned to make sure that parents know what to do that educators know what to do to get their children to write better, and just not write better, but love to write, make sure that your next generation and could tell their story. And they won't be silenced. Go to fallingforlearning.com today to purchase your set. Then we think about number one reason, cost effectiveness. Now there is lower tuition and lower fees at community colleges than there are at for profit colleges for profit kind of tells you everything that you need to know. They're there to make money. And, again, they've gotten a lot of problems because they're paying so they're charging so much money. And the quality of education isn't there, their accreditation is lost. Lots of issues that come into place, when children or students attend a for profit college with Community College's you get that state financial aid, you get scholarships, and there's specific resources for community colleges that are built into, you know, the federal funding the state funding that aren't not there for private or an for profit. College colleges, so really important to know that. So you have little to no debt load, when you are leaving a community college, rather than you're saddled with so much debt, and a for profit college when to leave. Okay, so let's it's as low as $46 per unit, or maybe I should say as high as because there are community colleges that you could attend for free. And, you know, we're gonna look at that cost analysis as we go through this episode, just so that you can understand. So I have taken a screenshot of American Career College, which is a for profit college that offer operates out here in the California area. And I just wanted to take a look and highlight how medical assisting is $21,000. So that's a lot of money, and we're gonna really see the math that $20 non refundable application fee. So 21,000 is the minimum, but there are more fees, right. So then we don't want to get into student loans and how much that is going to cause to pay that interest on that debt. So $21,000 for medical assistant, when we look at I took a screenshot from West LA College's Medical Assisting program. There are three different options, kind of what we talked about earlier, there's more options when you're going to community college, and the three certificate options, and a sort of an associate degree. So there's an administrative only medical assistant, the clinical only medical assistant, the administrative and clinical medical assistant you can get. And then there's an associate degree and medical assisting. Another thing we haven't talked a lot about is you can get an associate degree, often at these community colleges that you're not getting at a for profit college. So I want to point out that the administrative medical assistant certificate program is 22 units. Remember, it is $46 per unit to attend West Los Angeles College. And so you could do the math on that. It's a fairly low is nothing like that. $21,000. So moving on. So here's the clinical medical assistant certificate program. It's 31.5 units, and a year, I actually got the calculator and did the math, okay. $46 per unit 31.5, that's $1,449. For this program, we just saw that was 21,000. This is right. The other one, of course, you can get an Associates of Science and Medical Assisting is 60 units. So it's not like comparing apples to apples. They're not exactly the same programs. But you are supposed to come out with this same type of certification, right. So here's the associates the 60 units, which is closer to that for profit College, which was a 50 unit program. So this is 60 units. And it says, with the 60 units, times the 1400. I mean, sorry, the 60 units times the$46 per unit, you're looking at$2,800. For the Community Community College, I rounded it up from 2700, and some change, and for the for profit colleges$21,000 to attend. So yeah. And here's why your child, your student, your you know, adult child may want to attend a for profit college, because they have a advertising machine that community colleges do not have. They are convincing. They have salespeople, they'll seek you out. And they will make it sound enticing to attend these programs. And they will make you feel like it's so much quicker, right? The Community College has the similar programs, of course, you can take longer, you can take shorter, even with those programs. People don't always finish the for profit program. So they can say at six weeks or whatever. But the cost is so expensive. It is so problematic later on. So even if you finish, a couple of problems happen, and it's a big issue. So it doesn't quite make any sense. doesn't really make any sense. So of course we know about the machine. But the costs are so exorbitant at a at a for profit school, that it really doesn't make any sense. And you're just saddled with a lot of debt. Like some people feel like, and we'll talk about this on other episodes, how it may be worth it to go into debt for law school. If it's $100,000 in debt, I don't know how much it is. I didn't do my homework on that. But let's say it's $100,000$200,000 for law school, you can start off making $200,000 150,000 or something like that, then it's kind of like oh, kind of that makes sense. But I don't with with the such low amount that you're making, which is not even a living wage. It doesn't make any sense to go $20,000 in debt and I am saying that because most people don't have$18,000 lying around. And maybe they could work and pay it as they go. But a lot of times that just just doesn't make any sense. In what sense does it make well You could go to a community college, you could get a better quality and better quality, meaning it's a credit, it is easy to transfer to a another university, like if I decide after I do this, I want to go to a university, I could transfer or let's say I don't like I move, and I am not going to be at this community college record, go to another community college and it transfers. When you're doing that with a for profit, those credits aren't transferring, you have to start again. And a lot of times, they're not accredited, or they lose accreditation. And the things that they're doing for profit are not benefiting you as a student. Okay, so you've seen, you have seen the cost analysis, you saw the breakdown, you saw the reasons why you should attend a community college, if you're not sure what to do with your life, or even if you're sure what you want to do with your life, but get your prereqs prerequisites because the money is funny. And it's okay. A lot of people have it that way. We know it's the best to go to communicate community college, they are very reputable. They have a lot of support. And something that I didn't even mention earlier, which we can do another podcast episode about is how there are community colleges that offer four year degrees now, not just an associate degree before your four year degrees, because there have been some movement at the state level in California, for sure. And you have to check your state if you're in another state. But in California, for sure. You are they have these options. 15 different community colleges around the state of California offer Bachelor's degrees in specific areas, because they have heard lawmakers have heard because constituents really complain about access to college and the exorbitant college tuition. And community colleges, like I said, $46 per unit much more affordable, they are offering this now to college students so that they can have a low cost option for getting a four year degree. And they are really hard to. They're really industries where they need a lot of new workers, right, because people are aging out or retiring. And you know, so they need new workers. So I want to say this, right? Avionics is one of the programs. So it's like aviation engineering kind of that and you've seen on my podcast earlier, where there was a engineer, an aircraft, technical engineer, and that's one of those like programs like a trade, you get to be able to work on those engines and everything like that. So I will link that show in the notes so that you could take a look at that, if that may be something your child could be interested in. But they could also find a community college now that guest I think talked about a private, a program that they he went to he was very happy with it. And I don't know the specifics on that program. But I know that there are community colleges that offer the same program for less for sure. So please do your math, sit down with your young adult now, if they're not sure what they want to do, but they have an idea of some type of trade, find it as a community college. And if your closest Community College does not offer it a lot of times just like colleges and universities, they don't have this major at this college, but they have it at the other one. They may have it at another community college. In the LA area. We have the LA Trade Tech that really focuses on one trade, but I'm also West Los Angeles College, which is part of the same system. They have like college community college districts have other other offerings, then LA Trade Tech does some of the same, same, some different so you have to look in, do your research, sit down with them do some a cost analysis because that student debt is no joke. And especially if you're coming out of college, you know, with five figures in student debt and you're only making, you know,$18,000 a year. If I don't make dollars it don't make sense. Okay. Thanks again for joining the falling for learning podcast. Have a great week. Hey. Thanks again for supporting the falling for learning podcast. New episodes go live every Saturday at 5pm. You can watch us on youtube.com at falling for learning or listen on all major podcast platforms such as Apple, Google, Audible, Spotify, and much more. For more resources visit falling in love with learning.com We really appreciate you have a wonderful week